Ep. 2 — Chapter 6: First World (1)

I followed the blood trails, a weird feeling growing in my heart. An indecipherable feeling. Whatever it was, my heart started to beat quickly because of it. I didn't realise, but I was moving quickly to get to the room.

Right in front of the door, a body sat. A bald man, our neighbour. He lived in the house next to ours and would visit occasionally as he was a friend of my father. I had gotten used to his presence…before I left.

And now, he sat, leaning on the wall. Lifeless.

On the other side of the room, a girl was crouched down, holding a body of a woman in her hands. She was breathing loudly, the trail of blood ending in a pool under the woman in her hands. She slowly turned to look at me, the emptiness in her eyes made me shudder.

"Lia…" I softly spoke.

Something crossed my mind then. The text message Lia sent me before, asking if I would come back home.

The reason I didn't reply was because I didn't want to. But, here I am, standing before her clutching onto the body of our mother with emptiness in her eyes. Aside from the pool of blood under mom, Lia herself was bleeding.

"You said…you weren't gonna…" Her voice was hoarse and weak.

"…I'm here now."

"…late." There were a few other things she said, but I couldn't hear her. Though I could guess what had came out of her mouth then. I remained silent, not knowing what to say.

Or even if I had the right to say anything then.

She didn't move. Her already hanging head dropped down even more and her hand that held onto our mother's stomach slowly dropped to her sides.

And I stood there wordlessly.

Signs of battles were seen everywhere in the room. No, throughout the whole house. There was a knife next to Lia, and the bodies that laid all around the house had stab wounds all over them. Although it was dark, I was still able to see the bruises on her arms.

As for out mother, her shoulder was bitten.

And a knife wound in her stomach. It was easy to guess what had happened here, but I tried not to think about it.

[Your current Mentality level is not enough to fully offset the shock.]

I know.

I wordlessly walked over near the wall, away from the windows and placed the boy down before covering him up with my jacket.

Eventually, I went to Lia and pulled her body back, laying her down on a clean spot within her room. I then moved the other bodies away from the room. One by one, I gathered the bodies in the living room. I counted the bodies and got 16. 16 people entered this house. 17 people died.

Lia was the only survivor.

The bald neighbour didn't seem to have turned into a Mindless. He must've died in an attempt to protect Lia. And mom.

[Your Mental State is at the risk of deteriorating.]

[Continuous exposure to shocking events will lead to a Meltdown.]

Meltdown, the process of turning into a Mindless. Or any other being within the system. Most predominantly, the Mindless.

Never in my life had I expected to survive because of me gaming. But I made it this far only thanks to my saves—which still failed to be fully restored.

Anyway, I shouldn't be focusing too much on that now.

I piled the clothes and other items I harvested from the bodies into the corner. There was something that I saw and decided to pick up. The rest, I would save for the others—temporary items before we get the proper equipments.

The timer was nearing its end, and so was the Tutorial part of the Game. To think that this part was only the tutorial, a qualification test to see if Players would be able to survive in the actual Game…

Sickening really, but also a call to the new reality. If we continued to stay stuck in the old ways, we might as well die.

For survival, in this world, it's all about the mindset. Any moment of hesitation, your moral judgement, could become the death of you. I remembered what that man said before,

"It's either kill, or be killed."

That was the rule of this world.

I walked to the couch, plopping down on it with a knee raised. My hand was left dangling down, and I stared up into the ceiling. I took out my phone and winced when the bright screen flashed into my eyes.

The [World Ascension] home page was no more. I even tried searching up the game, but it didn't pop up anywhere.

A shock was felt on my hand and I dropped my

phone on the floor, a bit startled by it. It was then when a message conveniently appeared before me.

[A warning has been issued to your account for violating a certain rule!]

[Repeated violations will result in either account suspension or ban!]

Account suspension? Ban?

It would have been a lot less confusing had it been me playing tha game on the computer. But this was reality, and the concept of suspension or banning, it made no sense to me. How were they going to do that?

[0:07:21]

A long time had passed then, as the sky outside was starting to brighten up. Soon, the sun would rise and the hell will truly begin. If this was only the 'tutorial', I could only imagine what the real Game would be like.

Around seven minutes remained. I sat up from the couch and stared at the bodies that I had placed near the entrance of the house.

I suppose I'd do a little cleaning to pass time.

.

.

.

[Uploading the leaderboard…]

The message appeared before me as I tossed the shovel on the ground. My hands were soiled, but at least that was the last of them. I turned my attention to the screen floating in front of me.

Only the top 10 players were displayed on the leaderboard, their overall Points shown next to them.

[Currently, you are in 5th place.]

Fifth. It wasn't a number that was all too bad. The people above me must be amongst the early testers who had also farmed Points in the early release of the game.

I went back inside the house and went to the kitchen to wash my hands. It was then when the system window appeared again.

—

Tutorial level: [Admission to the Game]

Requirements: 100 Points

Time Limit: 6 Hours

Compensation: Entry to the Game, pending…

Upon Failure: Death

Level successfully completed!

—

[You have received a new Achievement, 'Going Online'!]

[Your character has leveled up! ≪10≫]

I felt a light breeze going around my body and it becoming lighter. The drowsiness from earlier had gone, leaving me in a much refreshed state.

The sunlight poured in through the window, the sky becoming blue now. Somehow, it seemed to give temporary relief to those who survivied. A moment to cherish. One that they would cherish in their hearts. Forever.

I didn't turn around to realise the presence of the person standing behind me. I continued to face the window, prompting the person to speak.

"When did you come back?" Lia asked. I only turned slightly, seeing her hair still disheveled, indicating that she had just gotten up. "And where is…?"

I only stared outside, not giving her an answer. Lia walked up mext to me, coming to see what I was looking at and her eyes widened in shock. Surprisingly, she didn't gasp loudly or overly dramatically.

Before she could ask any further, I managed to ask her a question. "Lia. Did you defeat those monsters last night? Or was it our neighbour?"

Lia was silent for a while, unanswering. But it wasn't like she wanted to hide something from me. Rather, she seemed like she couldn't remember. Slowly, she opened her lips, her voice shaky and unsure.

"I…don't really remember. I can remember, but it's all hazy and blurry. It's not in order either. One second I remember huddling with mom, the next thing, I was holding the knife. And then—"

Her voice stopped. I glanced over at her, her face was pale, and her entire body was shaking. "I…I killed…mom…"

Lia fell to her knees, looking up at me with a guilty expression. A pained expression.

I turned to her and she stared at me. Tears welling in her eyes. "Ray…I killed mom. I killed our mom…! I—I'm a killer…! I—"

"But it wasn't your fault."

"Huh?"

"If you didn't kill her, she would've killed you. It wasn't your fault. At all."

"…Are you crazy?" Lia asked, her voice was still shaking and she was quietly sobbing. "I just killed your mother. And you're say—"

"I don't care about her."

Lia hiccuped and stopped talking, only staring at me with wide eyes.

"When have I ever? I lived in this house for 17 years, so you should know that. Me and her, we aren't so close to the point where I care if you killed her or not."

"Then, why did you come…?"

I picked up her hand and squeezed them gently. "I just didn't want you to die. As long as you're safe, I don't care what happens to anybody. Go ahead, kill mom or dad. Or anyone else. I don't care."

[Your Attribute, 'Lives More Precious than the Rest' is taking effect!]

Ah. I completely forgot about this one. Really, I spoke at the spur of the moment. But I guess it's probably working out now.

Lia's hand had stopped trembling. She only looked up at me with tearful eyes.

"But unlike me, you're a good child." I raised her up to her feet and patted her shoulders. "Go say some things to mom, or whatever. We might not see her again."

"What do you mean?"

"We can't stay in this place. Last night was only the beginning. The true hell starts now."

Lia stared at me with disbelief. "You mean…?"

"Yeah. I mean that we're going to go through more harder things."

I walked past her and started stirring the cup of coffee I made earlier and taking sips from it. Lia stood in her place for a while before slowly moving towards the front door.

She went towards mom's grave. I watched her from the window as she knelt down and started talking to it.

Mom and I never really had a good relationship. It got worse when she brought home a new boyfriend. He was an asshole, so I chased him out. Our fued got worse that day and we stopped talking entirely.

So I left the house as soon as I got the chance.

Lia, she was different. At least, the two of them had some sort of relationship. Which is why she's able to mourn for her now.

I suddenly felt something brushing up against my leg and I flinched. We didn't have a cat did we?

I turned to look down and saw the little boy I brought home last night snuggling on my feet. For some reason, he looked smaller. I picked him up and confirmed my suspicions.

"Hey, why the hell did you get so small?"

He only blinked at me. I frowned and started shaking him a bit. "Answer me, damn it."

(Don't know…)

I raised my eyebrow and placed him down on the ground and started to drink my coffee. That is, until the tiny creature came back up and sat on my lap.

"What is it?"

(…) He only looked at me, then cracked a smile. (Papa…)

"Huh…?"

(Papa warm…)

"Wait, I'm not your dad, kid…!" I gulped down all of the coffee and placed the mug down, nearly choking.

(No Papa?)

I stared at the kid asking with sad eyes and bit my lips. Damn it, this kid. He knew what he was doing.

Eventually I gave in, sighing exasperatingly. "Fine. I'm your Papa."

(Papa!!!)

The kid jumped up on my face and wrapped his arms around my head. He felt really light. Almost too light, even for his size.

"Wait, what do I even call you…?" I finally remembered to ask him. "Do you have a name?"

(…Name?) The kid tilted his head.

No, wait, was he even a kid anymore? He just looks like a tiny little cute plushie thing. I couldn't even describe it properly. A plushie.

(Name! Papa give name!)

"What?"

—

Trigger Quest:

[Pet Naming]

Requirements: Give a name for the child.

Time Limit: —

Compensation: A Minimi, Achievement, 500P

Upon Failure: —

—

What in the…?